House debates Questions without Notice
Solomon Islands
Bob Sercombe Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Overseas Aid and Pacific Island Affairs
3:00 pm
My question is again to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and I look forward to him coming into the chamber later to correct his previous answer.
Bob Sercombe Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Overseas Aid and Pacific Island Affairs
I refer to the 2001 cable that the minister received from the Australian High Commission in Honiara about improper payments being made from Airservices Australia to Solomon Islands officials and to the fact that these improper payments continued for a further two years until late 2003. Why did the minister turn a blind eye to this warning, just as he did to the 33 warnings he received about AWB’s kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime?
Alexander Downer Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs
First of all, all cables—
David Hawker Speaker
Order! The member for Fowler will remove herself under standing order 94(a).
The member for Fowler then left the chamber.
Alexander Downer Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs
As I was just saying before I was so rudely interrupted, all cables are automatically, by definition, referred to my office, and that is about 130,000 a year. I would have thought that had become a bit apparent to people who knew something about how government works, because my portfolio is responsible for the cable system.
But let me just repeat what I said earlier: the Minister for Transport and Regional Services is responsible for the issue of Airservices Australia, not the foreign minister, and that has always been the case. The recent report by the Australian National Audit Office confirmed that the investigation undertaken by the Australian Federal Police considered the conduct of Airservices employees. The advice received from the AFP was that there was no evidence to support a charge of criminal conduct contrary to Commonwealth law by Airservices Australia employees. So I would have thought that, as usual, the right things were being done. There was an Auditor-General’s report; there has been an AFP investigation, and that is what we expect.
Bob Sercombe Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Overseas Aid and Pacific Island Affairs
Mr Sercombe interjecting
Alexander Downer Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs
The honourable member who has been so cruelly cut down by the Leader of the Opposition, whose career has been so brutally terminated, interjects and says, ‘What about good governance?’ It is precisely the point: good governance is making sure things are investigated. Good governance is making sure there is a proper accounting system. We had the Australian National Audit Office and we had the Australian Federal Police conduct an investigation. Indeed, that is good governance.